The Four Day Cocktail

If you saw the picture in Bon Appetit, you might drop everything and make it too. Its marbled beauty reminiscent of an Italian cathedral.... Oh sorry! Back to the cocktail.

This craziness started on Sunday with a special trip to our local 'Swapper Jacks' for a stout beer. I did not want a whole six pack because, for lord's sake, it's 90 degrees outside ... who drinks stout when it's that hot? Beer acquired.

Then I read over the recipe and started the cold brew coffee and the simple syrup. I acquired a cold brew coffee recipe and used my boyfriend Mark Bittman's simple syrup recipe from How to Cook Everything. The coffee recipe could have caffeinated an army: 12 ounces of ground coffee to 7 cups of water. I halved the recipe and it still used an astounding amount of ground coffee. The sludge sat on our counter becoming awesome for not the fifteen hours directed in the recipe but more like twenty. While this was clearly playing with fire, I have a job.

By Tuesday, all the pieces were almost assembled even the coffee concentrate that came from the unholy mess of straining six ounces of sodden coffee grounds and 3 1/2 cups of water. Somehow I only got two cups on concentrate. I can only assume the rest is the angel's share.

By Wednesday, everything was assembled, prepared, chilled and and a new pint of cream had just been bought. Let the measuring begin!

So, after all that, was it good? You bet! It's chilled Irish coffee with beer, come on people! Good, but not great. Once Ecodaddyo tasted mine, he requested his own. With less simple syrup and more beer, it was more to our taste. I felt a little silly once I fully surveyed all the labor required for one cocktail. However, there is a very good upside to all that fooling around: I have cold brew coffee concentrate at the ready and simple syrup for the rest of the summer's cocktails.